A Changed Man begins with an ex-white supremacist walking into a human rights organization’s office to offer his services: he wants to “help guys like me from becoming guys like me.” The subject matter allows Prose to flex her satire muscles, which by this point are quite developed. In this case, the focal point of her attack is a human rights organization. I don’t know how she’s going to one-up herself after this one. Ten years ago, in Hunters and Gatherers, she targeted goddess-worshipping new agey ladies. Five years ago, in Blue Angel, she chose a riskier subject: sexual harassment and p.c. language limitations on the college campus, likely to remain a touchy subject for years to come. And now she’s picked a human rights organization; can a cow get much more sacred?Prose allows four main characters to narrate: Vincent, the ex-neo-nazi, Meyer Maslow, the wealthy leader of the World Brotherhood Watch and a holocaust survivor, Bonnie, the organization’s (Jewish) fund-raiser who takes Vincent into her home, and Danny, Bonnie’s 16 year old son. The juxtaposition of Meyer and Vincent is excellent. The competitive, yet respectful, nature of their relationship is unveiled at their first meeting. Both men roll up their sleeves to reveal their tattoos: Meyer’s serial number given to him by Nazis and Vincent’s Waffen-SS bolts (Hitler’s elite guard’s symbol). Meyer’s written several inspirational books (which influenced Vincent’s departure from the white supremacist lifestyle, or so he claims), the most recent of which is lagging in sales. Meyer knows Vincent’s presence within the organization could bring much-needed funds to the World Brotherhood Watch, and guiltily thinks that it could also help his book sales. Meyer’s a charismatic leader who can get people to do whatever he wants. Danny thinks his mother’s been brainwashed by him: he’s actually convinced her to let the former neo-nazi live with them until they can find him an apartment. Bonnie is so obsessed with being a “good person” that she submits to Meyer’s demands. Soon, we discover that Vincent has a certain charm that Meyer hates to admit he envies. As Vincent sells his “changed man” story like a brand, the press, wealthy donors, and even Meyer’s wife eat it up. Meyer’s jealousy grows, followed by more guilt. One of my favorite Vincent-Meyer moments is when Meyer steals one of Vincent’s ideas to use in one of his trademark inspirational speeches. The two men form just one of the many interesting dyads in the book.As we’re getting into the characters, we’re treated to some biting satire. What I like so much about this book is that the characters are so interesting and real and their stories so engaging that you forget the primary purpose of the book is satire. I think it’s more fulfilling and less didactic than straight-up satires that don’t concentrate on character development or pace. I do want to share two examples though. The first one is when Vincent is giving a speech at a fund-raising dinner. When he tells the audience about how he was taught to “hate,” the crowd gasps: hate has become a four-letter word. Prose understands how ideology affects language. (My mom used to send me to my room if I used the word “hate”). Vincent goes on to tell a simple story that’s meant to symbolize his complicated conversion. He and his cousin had gone to a Korean man’s greenhouse, intending to hurt the man. Vincent remembers aloud that they referred to him as a “Korean mother…” and decides not to use the word in such company. He realizes that the audience is disappointed, so he says it: “Korean motherfucker.” The crowd loves it; it’s so transgressive and thrilling. The other example I’d like to mention is when Danny gets in trouble at school for a paper he wrote on Hitler. This harkens back to Blue Angel’s attack on the academic gutting of free speech. After talking with Vincent, Danny writes a paper that suggests Hitler’s suppressed homosexuality may have informed his evil. He is promptly booted from school. Just putting homosexuality and evil in the same sentence is grounds for hanging. I love that she manages to make her points within a solid story.From the very beginning, we know Vincent’s white power friends could find him at any moment. This point of tension propels the book and I ate it up like a bulimic at a buffet. I think I just puked all over the keyboard. I’ll wrap it by simply suggesting you read it.
Obviously it is about a "changed man," and really it was the whole premise of the book that reeled me in (based on the book jacket).Short Summary(spoilers)A recovering neo-Nazi finds himself in a suburban home with a ready made family of a forty-something divorcee mother of two boys after he promises to be a spokesperson for an anti-hate organiziation with the hope he can prevent other guys like him from becoming guys like him.First off, the Neo-Nazi is named Vincent which in my mind just doesn't go together. The divorcee mother is named Bonnie which also doesn't go well together since she lacks the spunk and confidence of a bubbly woman. Think putty colored business suits, sensible pumps, limp blonde ponytail, and no-nonsence right-hand-arm of the anti-hate organization for which she works. So, how does Vincent end up here? Well, he was never really into the white supremacist scene. He has the anger issues, the idea that the media/goverenment has some huge conspiracy against the working man, and demeaning thoughts about women in general. Bonnie's boss, a Holocaust survivor and founder of World Brotherhood Watch(whose last name is Maslow...reminds me of that whole humanistic approach from psychology...you know, the hierarchy of needs) thinks Vincent is harmless when it comes to being a serial rapist or anything of that sort and convinces Bonnie he should stay at her house until other living arrangements are made. So, his initial conversion is not completely genuine. He is just hoping Brotherhood Watch will take him in and protect him from his crazy skinhead cousin, Raymond, from which he stole a truck, 1500 dollars, and a caseload of drugs. Then he ends up kicking back in front of a TV with Bonnie's eldest son and causing a specatuclar sensation for World Brotherhood Watch at fancy dinner parties and a Maury-like talk show where the former skinhead and the Holocause surviver are now brothers.What I Think:The big problem for me is that I just didn't really see how or when Vincent changed. I also don't see how he fell for Bonnie since they never really had one of those huge connecting moments. She took off her glasses once for him, they kissed briefly, and he thought about how it would be really easy to take advantage of her since she practically through herself at him. Oh, but wait...he is a changed man! He didn't even steal Bonnie's son's stash of drugs when he left town. What a changed guy! Then he gets to speak at a graduation ceremony because he is the reformed face of white supremacy. I usually love everything written by Francine Prose, but I just wasn't crazy about this one. She definately got the right voice down for a semi-neo-Nazi and a bland suburban divorcee, but she just didn't make their voices come together. She just didn't create enought change in Vincent to warrant his golden ticket at the end of it all. The novel is described as darkly comic by the publisher, and I suppose that is why he is named Vincent and why he gets to be the keynote speaker and why a bunch of other stuff is included. But, it is not darkly comic enough for me. Or maybe it's that I am so used to reading first person YA that I just can't get too involved with darkly comic adult fiction.But, I still want to read My New American Life, which also promises to be darkly comic. Maybe I'll get it better this time.
Do You like book A Changed Man (2006)?
Reforming skinhead meets Holocaust survivor. I was so excited for the relative originality of the premise. Usually I avoid WWII and race/ethnicity relations in my entertainment. And I did enjoy how many of the characters were clearly, engagingly written. But the POV and plot were a bit untidy so I didn't feel I was reading at a depth the premise deserved. There were some nice sections of dialogue NOT thinly veiled soapbox speeches - that did a nice job bringing the reader into some pretty heavy themes and debates. Ditto for how some characters' prejudices were revealed, refuted, or reaffirmed. So, plenty of bright spots to keep me reading, but not an overall slam dunk.
—Katie
Prose has sensitive ear for free indirect discourse and for dialogue. Her language quickly had me engaged. Her characters are complex, each highly individual but also believable– Vincent Nolan, Meyer Maslow, Bonnie Kalen, her sons. I was at first more impressed by their emerging complexity than by any significant change they were each undergoing, at least until the second half of the novel. Each had ghosts and was full of neuroses. It was initially hard to know whether Nolan was “legit.” Was he really someone who is trying to change his life? Or was he faking it, ready to go back to the neo-Nazi life he had been living? And, if he was really as lukewarm and marginal to the Aryan Resistance Movement as he implied, than was his new direction very significant after all?I had several questions as I arrived at the mid-point of the novel. Is it plausible that someone as apparently fearful of being targeted for revenge by the ARM as Nolan implies that he is would be willing to be such a public figure for the World Brotherhood Watch? Is something not adding up about his story and his intentions?Vincent increasingly seems genuine, and Bonnie, who has been giving him a room in which to stay, is obviously becoming more emotionally involved with him. But as the story progresses, things are obviously going too well. The neo-Nazis have not yet caught up to Vincent, even as he is getting more publicity, and some sort of crisis is bound to occur in Bonnie and Vincent’s relationship. To this point, Prose has primarily been working at establishing a kind of stability after the initial destabilizing occurrence of Nolan’s appearance, and now is the time to introduce complications that threaten to shatter the success of what has been happening. Eventually, one suspects, all will turn out well, but first there needs to be some crisis, some challenge that threatens to undo all the apparent progress.And the crisis finally arrives when Raymond, Vincent’s cousin and ARM leader, from whom Vincent stole a truck, drugs, and money when he left the ARM to change sides, learns through the media where Vincent is and what he is doing. And one wonders whether Raymond may seek revenge by going after Bonnie rather than Vincent directly. There seems to be no good way for this crisis to be resolved.But it does get resolved. So what if the ending is a little sappy. At least it’s believable. And the message of the novel is good, and it’s honest. Change is possible. And we are not in this life alone. Prose has created a novel that is entertaining, engaging, and has more substance than much of contemporary fiction. She also provides interesting insights into the white supremacy movement. I would be willing to read more of her work.
—Bruce
After reading Blue Angel, I was disappointed with A Changed Man. It was entertaining and kept me interested, but also kept me wondering what was missing from making it great instead of just OK. Part of it was a matter of believability and another that I found none of the characters wholly likable. That they were all so habitually self deprecating didn't help either. It did inspire me to ponder what the important part of a person is. Is it the inner person, their thoughts and feelings that they do not share? Or is is all about one's actions, even if they greatly conflict with the inner self? It was Vincent Nolan and Meyer Manslow's characters who embodied this contradiction and made me wonder how differently the other characters would have reacted to them were this contradiction more apparent.
—Maureen
